Beginers Mods
 

Ive been trying to figure out what mods and in what order I should do to my car. I stumbled across this article which is titled "How to Create a Reliable and Powerful LT1" (which is basically the exact goal I have for my car). The article deals with a high mileagle fourth gen (like my car which has 111k).

Just wanted to know what you guys thought about this approach for some beginer mods:

http://gmhightechperformance.com/tech/0506htp_fresh/

Of course I might not use their Borla exhaust and just leave the Flowmaster that came with my car. And I might use Pacesetter headers instead of the Kooks (depending on my budget), but for the most part I really liked their approach.

Feedback is welcome :)

It was a good article, but there was a lot of work involved there. Another thing I didn't understand was if you are that far into a motor, why not swap the camshaft? Just need to pull the intake, (which if you are willin to pull the front cover and mess with the oil pan and such, the intake is a piece of cake.) the lifters and the cam can come out. Of course the radiator and such need to come out too so its a little more lengthy but the work is well worth the trouble.

They have a nice approach and if you want some starter go fast parts, let me know- I just happen to have some lying around my shop.

hey i want some starter go fast parts.....

soem good begining mods are of coarse free mods, some of which include:

-Throttle body bypass. removing the two coolant lines the go to the throttle body and splicing them together, bypassing the throttle body. be careful tho that your car isnt in very cold weather much when you do this, as the whole point of putting coolant in the throttle body is to prevent it from freezing

-IAT replaction. move the IAT sensor(intake air temperature sensor) further from the motor. its stock placement is in the 90 degree elbow that goes right into the throttle body. moving this to a further place such as the point before turning down to the air filter on a CAI will make the computer beleive the engine is getting colder air than it actually is and in turn adjusting certain parameters for more horsepower and torque.

good starting mods=

CAI(cold air intake)- pretty much any CAI you buy is gonna do what its supposed to. SLP, K&N, Moroso, Lingenfelter etc. hell make your own out of PVC pipe or A/C ductin for a house. w/e just get the filter beneath that hole in the frame thingy.lol. get more air into the engine quicker. get a K&N filter and dont ever have to replace it. this mod is essential for any bigger modifications.

Cat back exhaust- buy a whole cat back or just the muffler. make the I pipe (intermediate pipe, from the cat over the axle into the muffler) bigger and egt more flow. any muffler is pretty much better than stock. http://www.lt1engine.com/soundlib/index.html
decide which one u want by listening to them. so many options, cant really go wrong.

headers- gets a little more difficult with headers. depends on how big of an insue ground clearance is for you and also what year the car is as well as emmisions laws for your town. many different options and choices. not so much a beginer mod but its simple and helps out a lot on LT1s.

colder t-stat/fan switch- keep your engine running cooler by putting in a colder t-stat or wiring a switch to turn the fans on sooner than the stock setting.definitly helps in the summer time or at the track when you want optimum performance for extended periods of time. SLP even makes a fan switch to wire right up.

Custom programming- you can wait till you have more things done to the car or get it after a few small things. getting your computer/chip tuned will help a lot with horsepower/ torque and gas mileage and emmisions. raise the rev limiter and program shift points and hardness as well for autos

transmissions- depending on if you have a 6 speed or auto. if its a manual trans, look into hurst or B&M shifters. Pro 5.0. all good aftermarket shifters that you will LOVE compared to the stock shifter. quicker shifts and better feeling. for autos get it programmed when you have the chip/computer tuned like mentioned above.

rear end- gears always help. depending on what you have from the factory. if theyre 2.73s look into this mod RIGHT AWAY. be sure to get the correct serries for your rear end tho. 3.23s and higher from the factory require 3 serries carrier gears. anything under 3.23s is gonna need 2 serries gears. good choices are 3.73s or 4.10s. 4.10s might be too much for an auto and even some manuals depending on how much you are on the highway. be sure not to put too sticky of a tire on tho and blow the rear end to peices with a good launch.

these are some good starting mods to do, that will really wake up the car. they cost a lot but are neccesarry for any performance gain. hope this helps and good luck

matt half of those arent a good idea...

involves tricking the computer...never a good idea.

with a lower temp stat get some kinda of tuning to keep the computer up to date...if the system goes into closed loop at 160* and the stat is 160* you will have a problem...the fans switch is a good idea though.

reprogramming the trans for quicker shifts is the same as the B&M electronic shift enhancer...as arch has said soooooo many times...it kills the trans.

Just to clarify- movin the AIT sensor doesn't trick the computer into thinkin its gettin colder air, its actually a more acurate reading. You can get some heat soak on hotter days with the sensor that close to the motor so by moving it farther away you are gettin a more accurate reading, not a false reading.

not gonna start any trouble here but just making some points

-never heard of anyone having any trouble with the IAT reloc. mod. it was already done to my car when i bought it so i cant reference it to stock, but everythigns ive read says that it does indeed help and wont hurt anything.

- i myself had the factory t-stat and had no plans of changing it, however if i went through with my heads and cam and got the PROM burned for it i was prolly gonna drop to a 160 t-stat and mention that to the person that would be burning that chip( thats the whole idea behind the hypertech thing and changin to a colder t-stat. i was going to do the fan switch right away though cause i know from experience, when i went to the track that car started getting hotter and the times got worse from back to back runs.

-thats why i have a stick and will get another one:) i dont know the whole idea behind it, cause i have no use in looking into it, but i know people get it programmed all the time. i was just giving out ideas not saying what is the ONLY way to go.

yes it is more accurate, but more accurate of the ambient air. the computer doesnt want to know the ambient air temp, it wants to know the temperature at the elbow. they calibrate the entire block and integrator numbers based on what the temperature would be at the elbow. so by moving it away it tells the computer that at the elbow the temp is whatever, so it calculates false values.


yeah im not accusing you of being wrong...im just advising any readers...

yes, there are certain precautions to take with any mods so thanks for the heads up. like Force Fed Z said, its a better reading cause in the elbow is so close to the intake manifold where its REALLY hot. my car is speed density which depends on the IAT and it ran like a champ.

Well I have yet to see anything against it, and the amount of difference that is makes in the end are minor anyway. The way I look at it, if it was a bad idea why companies make kits to move the sensor?

The sensor itself can get heatsoaked and give slightly higher readings, but the amount of time that the incomin air spends in the intake elbow on the way to the motor is not enough to raise it to the temp that sensor might be reading.

There are many things that people do that people disagree on, if you don't think its a good idea Caleb then don't do it. But havin done research on it I have yet to find a place that says its a bad idea, and its only a suggestion to a newbie lookin to find any additional power. Like I said, the difference is minor if any, but it can only help. People that go out and rip on their car when its stone cold do way more damage to their motor than movin a sensor so it reads a couple degrees more accurate.

it hurts the motor, since the only thing that really does is make the engine stay in cold start mode dumping more gas. Look at the temps pros run at, they want to launch with the engine around 190*.Most cars run the best times (from what I have seen and read) with a 180* tstat

im not disagreeing in any way im just saying lots of people switch to 160 t-stats. i dont have any experience with it im just giving him basic mods that lots of people start with.

man we gotta war goin on. i know i came off as completely disagreeing with everyone...im only taking what i know about electronic engine controls and arguing it from that perspective. yes, these mods probably will give a small boost and probably wont hurt the computer ever, but theoretically...it isnt good :D

exactly, just because a ton of people do it doesn't mean it works (most guys I see on boards giving info rarely take the car to the track, or do any real checking of the changes)

My engine runs in the lower 180's once the car heats up so a 160 T-Stat isn't that cold. The closed loop on the LT1 is set at 155 by the PCM so as long the car heats up above that you really have nothing to worry about. The IAT relocation is one of those mods you do if you have some extra time on your hands. The gains have never really been proven but in theory it does help. However IMO the throttle coolant bypass is by far one of the best free mods you can do. Gains on the dyno shows this mod on average can give you a gain of around 6 RWHP.